The school year was highlighted by sand volleyball's national championship and baseball's postseason run.

Maurice Hilliard, who began working at Pepperdine in 2001, spent two seasons as an assistant women's basketball coach in 2008-09 and 2009-10.

During the two seasons with Hilliard on the staff, the Waves went 36-25, posted a pair of third-place finishes in the West Coast Conference, reached the final of the 2010 WCC Championships and advanced to the 2010 Women's NIT.

After leaving his coaching position to become a program director for Pepperdine's Boone Center for the Family, he continued to work as the athletic chaplain.

Hilliard previously worked as a coach at the high school and college level before joining Pepperdine's staff in 2001-02. He served as the men's basketball Director of Operations in 2006-07 but most of his career in Malibu was spent as an academics coordinator, working with student-athletes on a daily basis to monitor their academic progress, with additional focus on mentoring and summer employment opportunities.

Hilliard taught and coached at the high school level for more than 10 years and also served a two-year stint as an assistant women's basketball coach at Biola for one season (1999-2000) before arriving in Malibu.

He started his teaching and coaching career in 1989 when he began a seven-year run at Bassett High School in La Puente, Calif., where he served as a special education teacher and the boys' basketball coach. Bassett High won the CIF Southern Section championship in 1994, a first-ever accomplishment for the program.

Additionally, Hilliard taught and coached at Cerritos Valley Christian High (2000-01), Anaheim Hills Canyon High (1997-99) and Ontario Christian High (1996-97). He also worked as the college-age and young adult pastor at the Bethany Christian Reformed Church in Bellflower, Calif., from 1997-99.

A native of Los Angeles, Hilliard graduated from Kennedy High School in Granada Hills and earned a bachelor's degree in business administration with a finance concentration from La Verne in 1991. He earned a master's of divinity degree in apologetics at Biola in 2001.